


Glass Half Empty

by Iambic



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-24
Updated: 2010-02-24
Packaged: 2017-10-07 12:31:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/65182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iambic/pseuds/Iambic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Fai and Kurogane continue to go world-hopping, and Yuuko pays them in booze.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Glass Half Empty

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is so jossed it's not even funny.

Some days they drink.

It begins with one bottle, opened and divided between four; two glasses remain full. And they will toast to days gone by, to friends lost and found and lost again, and they will down their first glasses in unison, lost in momentary remembrances. Sometimes the early morning light will catch on a metal arm or the remnants of a sword, and sometimes a golden eye will flicker blue. They remember.

The rest of the day they will drink to forget. Sometimes Fai will not stop to taste the smoothness or bitterness of acidity of the different alcohols they find; sometimes he relishes the burn, memorising each drop as it trickles down his throat. Kurogane is more consistent: first a sip, then a swig. He counts as he drinks, counts feathers forgotten or how many Soratas he's met or how many days it has been since Fai last fed.

Sometimes he counts regrets, and those days he makes it out of sobriety altogether.

\--

"They say it says a lot about a person," Fai says, "whether they see the glass half-full or half-empty."

"They aren't drinking properly, then," Kurogane replies. "The glass is either full, empty, or being refilled."

"And there's always _something_ in it," Fai muses.

\--

Mokona does not stay with them, but returns to Yuuko until needed again. Yuuko says something vague about taking comfort where one can when asked a tentative why, and Fai carefully does not look at Kurogane, who just as carefully looks straight ahead. Only when the image has faded and the small white creature far from where they stand do their eyes finally meet.

They spend most of their time together, for they can understand each other even when neither says a word. Without Mokona, the speech of many worlds is an unsolvable puzzle. Such familiar company is a great barrier against the unintended isolation of alien cultures.

"I found something in the market," Kurogane says gruffly. "It smells drinkable."

It _is_ drinkable, but most things are.

\--

Fai dislocates a shoulder; or rather, Fai gets pushed off a wall and wrenches his shoulder out of its socket to keep from falling. The offender sneers and wanders away, while Kurogane fumes that he should have to stay here and help Fai up when his interests would be better served chasing down the bastard that caused it.

They spend time enough for Fai to heal in this country, and gradually pick up the language. The country of Sido is one of aesthetics and ascetics; every stone has a specific placement to build a simpler, more elegant whole. Its citizens eat simple fare, write sparse poetry, and do not engage in crude battle. There is no alcohol sold here.

Fai sits against the wall one day, biting his lip to ward off the pain he cannot avoid, and Kurogane sits next to him and kisses him carefully. There is a suppressed intensity in his movement, as if he is restraining himself because he knows what he cannot do around Fai's shoulder. But Fai kisses back and accepts the opening in the walls for what it is.

\--

The next world they reach, they drink until they are actually drunk, and then they fuck between the empty bottles. The following morning finds them sore and cold and hung over on the floor. Nothing is said; they clear the bottles out and leave the confines of their borrowed room to explore the world they have arrived in.

When they return, the bottles have been refilled, or perhaps replaced, and Fai catches a whiff of the scent of magic. He is not surprised. Yuuko owes them more than she will ever be able to pay, and there is little either find worth wishing for. So Yuuko does what she can to lessen her debt.

(He also thinks that it's just like her when he finds the small but brightly-coloured box and an explanation in his own language of what it's for. Yuuko isn't always subtle.)

"You're going to kill your liver," Fai observes as they begin drinking anew. "So will I." He likes pretending sometimes that they're normal people still, that they can still die of natural causes. Eventually he'll have to start counting years, but for now he can forget from time to time.

Kurogane doesn't bother with self-delusion. "It hasn't killed that witch yet," he replies harshly.

Their pattern: drink to the past, drink the present, drink to the future. Then they just drink.


End file.
